The Evotron: an experimental evolution system for investigating and predicting agrochemical resistance

The overall aim of this work is to establish a novel experimental paradigm for investigating and predicting the evolution of agrochemical resistance, which currently poses a significant threat to global food security. The experimental organism of choice for this work is the nematode C. elegans, which possesses the crucial life-history traits required for experimental evolution work (e.g 3-day generation time), combined with well-characterised agrochemical resistance biology, and an excellent genetic toolkit. It is impossible to imagine any other relevant, multicellular organism in which this could be done as successfully. Experimental evolution in C. elegans is well established but has yet to be applied in any significant way to agrochemical resistance, so the approach we propose is novel and offers an outstanding training and research opportunity for a PhD student in a unique collaboration between academia and industry.